B. Riley Upgrades Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:MDGL) to “Strong-Buy”

Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:MDGL) was upgraded by investment analysts at B. Riley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $422.00 target price on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $236.00. B. Riley’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 23.66% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on MDGL. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $427.00 price target on shares of Madrigal Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Madrigal Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. UBS Group raised their price target on Madrigal Pharmaceuticals from $411.00 to $441.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup raised their price target on Madrigal Pharmaceuticals from $378.00 to $469.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, HC Wainwright raised their price target on Madrigal Pharmaceuticals from $400.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Madrigal Pharmaceuticals has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $375.75.

Madrigal Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of MDGL opened at $341.27 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $322.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $284.05. The company has a current ratio of 5.98, a quick ratio of 5.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Madrigal Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $189.00 and a 12 month high of $377.46. The company has a market cap of $7.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.61 and a beta of -0.38.

Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:MDGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($2.71) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($4.32) by $1.61. The business had revenue of $103.32 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $97.81 million. Research analysts anticipate that Madrigal Pharmaceuticals will post -23.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Madrigal Pharmaceuticals

In other news, CEO William John Sibold sold 1,584 shares of Madrigal Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $335.24, for a total value of $531,020.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,204,537.72. The trade was a 2.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director James M. Daly sold 15,470 shares of Madrigal Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $347.45, for a total value of $5,375,051.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,912 shares in the company, valued at $664,324.40. This trade represents a 89.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,160 shares of company stock valued at $8,067,652 over the last ninety days. 22.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Madrigal Pharmaceuticals

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MDGL. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Madrigal Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter worth about $114,717,000. Erste Asset Management GmbH purchased a new position in Madrigal Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter worth about $49,749,000. Paulson & CO. Inc. grew its position in Madrigal Pharmaceuticals by 10.4% in the third quarter. Paulson & CO. Inc. now owns 2,042,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $433,353,000 after acquiring an additional 192,000 shares in the last quarter. Braidwell LP purchased a new position in Madrigal Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter worth about $39,010,000. Finally, Woodline Partners LP grew its position in Madrigal Pharmaceuticals by 110.2% in the fourth quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 309,117 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $95,384,000 after acquiring an additional 162,027 shares in the last quarter. 98.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Madrigal Pharmaceuticals

Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development of therapeutics for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in the United States. Its lead product candidate is resmetirom, a liver-directed thyroid hormone receptor beta agonist, which is in Phase 3 clinical trials for treating NASH.